Popular consumer products are common targets for counterfeiters. In is estimated that approximately 2-3% of all fast moving consumer goods sold are counterfeit. To various large companies, this can represent millions to billions of dollars of lost sales every year.
In addition to lost monetary income, such counterfeit products can also impact brand equity. Since counterfeit products are typically inferior in quality and performance compared to the authentic product, consumers who are unaware of the counterfeit nature of the product may associate the lowered quality with the brand name product. Thus, consumers may incorrectly link the inferior qualities to the brand name or even to other products manufactured by the producer of the authentic product and as a result, avoid purchasing further products from the manufacturer of the authentic product.
Many manufacturers attempt to counteract the effects of counterfeiting by actively detecting and removing counterfeit products from the market, for example by intercepting shipments of counterfeit products at global custom ports so they can be seized and destroyed. These activities rely on being able to quickly detect counterfeit products so that action can be taken. For example, in one system when a suspect shipment arrives at a custom port, custom authorities contact the organization, who then helps identify whether the shipment is authentic or counterfeit. However, depending on location and local laws, the shipment may need to be held between 5-10 days while its authenticity is verified. Typically, if the authenticity of a consumer good in a shipment cannot be confirmed by visual assessment, it is sent to an analytical laboratory where complex analytical tests methods, such as nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, infrared spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, x-ray fluorescence, optical microscopy, and the like, are used to identify the product. While visual assessment may be sufficient to identify crude counterfeit, as counterfeiting becomes more sophisticated, the need for analytical testing will increase.
There are multiple limitations to the current system for detecting counterfeit consumer goods. For example, in many jurisdictions, customs or other officials may not have the means or knowledge to detect whether a consumer good is authentic or counterfeit. Thus, the manufacturer can become responsible for policing the authenticity of its products throughout the world. However, geographic, time, and economic concerns, among others, may make manufacturer based policing difficult. For example, certain geographic locations may not be readily accessible for manufacturer based policing and other custom ports may not be legally able to release sample products for testing. Limits on how long a shipment may be held while awaiting test results is also a concern. In addition, many of the current analytical test protocols require expensive and non-portable analytical instruments and highly qualified technicians to test a sample for its authenticity. Thus, there is a need for a portable on-site kit for testing consumer products to determine their authenticity.